What was once a highly specialized, narrowly focused vehicle has been steadily morphing into a very different kind of vehicle, aimed at a wildly different audience, with diametricallydifferent driving demands.
But functional product differentiation is exactly what the rivalry between the Airbus A380 and the Boeing 787 Dreamliner is all about: Two companies with fundamentally different products, based on diametrically opposite visions of the future, engaged in a Hatfields versus McCoys battle with billions of dollars at stake.
But on other issues, I would argue a much larger number of issues, it makes perfect sense to work with the Russians because while their interests are in many respects different from ours they are not diametrically opposed.